A Series of Improbable Events 8: Ghosting
by ErykahMiszti
Summary: Donna has some things to get off her chest.


"Do you not want to talk about them?"

"Are you kidding? Of course I want to include them. They're a big part of my life and why I am who I am."

"It's just that you kept them so long out of the public eye…"

"I just wanted them to have a normal start to their lives."

"One of them was nearly born IN the White House. I'm not sure you can have a less normal start than that!"

"True, but a mother has to try, and I didn't always keep them out of it."

"Ah yes, the infamous breastfeeding incident!"

"Infamous?!" She laughed. "It's infamous?"

"Distinctly famous then." He smiled. "Tell me about that."

"It was all over the Internet..."

"Yeah, but I'm after your words. Was it your idea?"

"Sort of. That week Fox had been hammering some poor women who'd breastfed her child in a Starbucks in Mississippi. She was getting the full whack; getting called brazen and slutty, and worst of all, a feminist." She pulled a mocking face.

"You disapproved?"

"You didn't?"

"This isn't about me."

"Of course it is. You're a person with opinions, aren't you?"

"For this process I'm more interested in your opinions…"

"And I'm interested in yours."

"Okay then, I'm fine with breastfeeding in public. I wasn't always, but I am now."

"What changed your mind?"

He paused for a long minute.

"It was your idea then?"

"I was annoyed. I initially said it in a moment of frustration. Convincing me to actually do it was all Josh."

"That surprises me."

"Why should it?"

"It was hardly an obvious vote winner. You were going to rile up a lot of people."

"You don't understand my husband." She smiled.

"Then tell me." He challenged.

"People get him wrong. They think of him as a bully, an enforcer, a political operative through and through."

"And he wasn't?"

"Not through and through. He was a kind, sweet man, with a love of life and a childish streak a mile wide. He had immense principles, he passionately stood up for his beliefs and he genuinely wanted to make the world a better place."

"You miss him." It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

"Every second of every minute of every day." She replied without hesitation.

"So he talked you into it?"

"He talked everyone into it."

"Including the President?"

"Matt Santos was a very special man too. He liked to go his own way. He didn't mind not playing by the rules, and he knew that you don't always just go for the easy votes. Sometimes you have try and win over the hard ones."

"He didn't mind doing that with a stunt like that?"

"You think it was a stunt?"

"Wasn't it?"

"No." She said firmly. "It was a gesture of solidarity. I was a working mom, not quite like all the millions of working moms in this country, but still a working mom. If I could do it, then why couldn't they?"

"Most them don't go to State Dinners with the King of Sweden."

"True." She laughed. "Every second of it was planned. Lou - Louise Thornton our Communications Director – took me through it a dozen times. I wasn't going to flash the room. We chose my dress carefully. We planned when it would happen, so I wasn't just pulling a boob out during the fish course. My husband brought me my son, and I fed him."

"How did the King of Sweden react?"

"A little surprised, but his wife thought it was wonderful."

He laughed.

"What changed your mind about women breastfeeding in public?"

He looked at her for a long moment, then finally said with a smile.

"The First Lady's Chief of Staff breastfeeding at a State Dinner."

"My work here is done."

They grinned at each other.

"So why did you leave the White House?"

"I was pregnant again. It was a tough decision. I loved working there. It's like no where else. Nothing even comes close."

"And yet you chose to give it up…"

"Yeah." She sighed. "We tried to make it work and it did. Jed Bartlet once told me that I didn't have to make a choice. I could be both a mom and do my job. Millions of women, every day, don't have a choice but to find a way to do, to be, both."

"Sounds like you were making a political decision."

"Everything's a political decision. You can't separate who you are and what you do from the choices you make."

"That's why you went after the crèches?"

"Absolutely. Helen Santos was a mother too. She passionately believed in helping mothers do what was right for them. It seemed only logical to set up a crèche for the working moms in the White House, and to use that as an example to fight for businesses up and down the country to do the same."

"So why did you leave?"

"Because I could."

"You never thought of it as a betrayal of your ideals?"

"I wrestled with that." She admitted. "But I had the ability to take some time to give to my children, and I can't apologise for that."

"And you used that some of that time to finish your degree."

"Yeah."

"Why? Did you feel inadequate?"

"A little perhaps. Although no one ever made me feel that way, especially not Josh."

"That kind, sweetness thing?" He said with a touch of sarcasm.

"You're finding it hard to reconcile?" She smiled wryly.

"He has a reputation."

"Written by his enemies, not by those of us who loved him. Definitely not by the people who were loved by him."

"You want me to put that in verbatim?"

"Most definitely."

"You didn't stay out for long."

"There were too many causes that still needed fighting."

"The infamous dinosaurs…"

"I didn't know I was so infamous…"

"You seem to have your moments."

"I'll take that as a compliment. It's interesting to see my sins laid bare."

"I'm your ghost, not your confessor."

"Is there that much of a difference?"


End file.
